This chapter is short. I feel really bad. But school is SO STUPID, and I've been sick for over a month. I also got really into longboarding until the cold weather hit. Sorry.
You were lead to the cramped entrance to a cavern and forced inside. One within it, the walls opened up to a large cave lit only by the river of magma that flowed beneath a bridge that lead to the next area of the mine. The heat within the cave was unbearable, raw and searing. The air was no better, sulfurous and bitter, no doubt poisonous to breathe in for long periods of time. Within a few minute you were gagging.
The contrast between the inside of the mines and the frost enshrouded world in which you had been was a shock to you. You'd had no time to prepare for it, a part of you wished you were still outside. At least the air was fresh and you didn't feel as if the ends of your hair were being singed away. The deeper into the mine tunnels they lead you the worse the air became. You held the shredded remains of your shirt to your chest and tried to filter out some of the acidity in the air, not caring about your exposed stomach. Others around you attempted to do the same. It was a difficult task given the bindings, and you would wince every time the fabric brushed against the fresh runes on your arms.
Along the walls, heaving pickaxes and hammers of stone above their heads, were hundreds of slaves, all in a row, lining the shaft walls elbow to elbow. They worked mechanically to the unending beat of a non-existent drum. Lift, swing, crack, collect the ore and stones, place them in a pile behind them. Repeat. The faces of the slaves, all Frostwolf Orcs and Draenei in tattered miner's clothes, were dead. It was like watching someone sleep walk, or in this case sleep work. Their eyes were open, their bodies moved, but there was no life or sign of consciousness to them. The longer you watched, the more their movements looked wrong and distorted.
You blinked and everything shifted back to normal, you tried to tell yourself it was just the noxiousness of the air you were gagging on getting to your head...
Down the through the tunnels you were lead, passing hundreds more slaves and towering bands of Ogre guards and slave masters. Finally you were lead to the biggest cavern you had yet seen. The ceiling more than two hundred feet above your head no doubt. The cavern was circular with little tunnels branching off into the cavern walls. The walls here lined with slaves just like the winding shafts that lead to this place and in the center of the room stood a massive Ogre dressed in spiked armor of gray and silver, a spiked club in his right hand to match. The Ogre, with his size alone, would have been already frightening. With armor though, he was truly terrifying. The horned helmet atop his head added several feet to his height, and that club in his hand was longer than Father was tall, and as big around as he was broad.
The line stopped and you stared up at the towering Ogre. Suddenly his voice, deeper and rougher than any voice you'd ever heard, rang out through the cavern and made you jump as it echoed off the black walls. "Kneel, slaves!"
The fear that gripped you at that moment was crushing, so much so that you could hardly draw breath. You did not hesitate to do as the gigantic Ogre said and kneeled the best you could manage in your chains. "I am Slave Watcher Crushto." The armored Ogre said. "I am your watcher and your master, and you- You are mine. Every step you take, every breath you draw, every beat of your puny heart is mine."
He spat upon the rocky floor and you hid the grimace that threatened to break across your face. "There is only one Ogre in this mine who's higher up than me when it comes to you lot of filth and that is Gug'rokk. But if you disobey any of us, we won't hesitate to decorate our belts with your skulls." The Slave Watcher grinned, and spat once more. Again you hid a grimace. "Welcome to the Bloodmaul Slag Mines, filth..."
"Now get to work!"
You had fallen into step almost immediately after Crushto's introduction, slipping beneath the certainty of your doomed life just as all the others had. You were unbound, your old clothing was thrown into a fire and you'd stood boiling even in your underthings as you sifted through a pile of half-decent miner's wear for "new" clothes. Around you the others, all dazed, angry, or unsure, did the same. You remembered Kaurin's lips peeling back into a snarl as he shed his old slave's clothes for another set. You'd managed to keep ahold of the remainder of your shirt to use as a mask after seeing others do the same. It was the only relief you'd had against the onslaught of sulfuric, acidic air.
You were sent to work right away, hammers shoved into your hands as you followed Kaurin and the rest of the newcomers- who followed the other slaves into the shafts. Those around you who dared to speak only murmured in Orcish. As you followed them you caught snippets of the whispered conversations.
"-so I advise you not to attempt at escape-"
"I know that it's hard, but we can get through-"
"There's nothing we can do but accept our fate and deal with what's been thrown at us one step-"
"-dare take the coward's way, you fool. If you throw yourself into those lava channels what will that accomplish?"
"-don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't to-"
They ranged from optimistic quotes to strangled ideas of suicide, from panicked escape plans to repetitive mumbling of the same words over and over. Few of the others spoke any Draenei, and even you found it difficult to think in your native language, the presence of the magic so influencing in your mind. You found yourself trying to remember basic phrases and prayers you knew by heart only to come up with garbled mixes of Orcish and Draenic. It was all the more a reminder of the Light's abandonment and the night of crying in the cart. You were startled when you realized just how long ago that all seemed, just distant your old life was now. You wondered how much further you would drift in these mines as you crawled the tunnels for the rest of your existence...
When Kaurin's careful words of reassurance drifted to you through the droning haze of fear, you latched onto the only good thing you had left.
"You are not alone here," He said to you as he slowed his pace to walk beside you rather than in front of you and you watched him. Even in obvious pain he kept going, the tenacity and perseverance of he and his kind still strong in him. You remembered back to the day he spent walking behind your cart, how he kept going even when it looked painfully obvious that he could not. You tried to let him inspire you, and to let his words bring you comfort, but only when he gripped your hand did you finally feel the fog of dread lift ever so slightly.
You were not alone.